A geeky mum's view of the world around her

Borrowing From Peter To Pay Paul

110

When I was growing up, I heard my Parents talking about borrowing from Peter to pay Paul quite a lot. It wasn’t until I was earning my own money and paying my own way in the world that I started to understand what it meant, though.

January was a tough month here. Like most people, we were feeling the pinch after Christmas, but then the boiler died. (Why does that never happen in July)? We were left with no heating or hot water, and for the first time ever, I found myself having to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. I took direct action and set to work trying to cut our monthly outgoings as much as I could. I knew we’d be fine as soon as 1st Feb rolled around, but we couldn’t wait that long without heat or water, so I set to work crunching the numbers.

I knew we needed £400 to get the boiler working again, so I redid the food menus and took all luxuries out of the online food shop basket and saved £65 there. I phoned the gas and electric supplier, and they agreed to let me miss a payment as I was £160 in credit already. This saved us £165. I did the necessary food shopping using my Clubcard points (which I haven’t spent in over 2 years as I always save them for emergencies). This free’d up another £120. This left us with £50 to find. It was finally time to sell some of my never watched DVD box sets and never played computer games. £106 earned from eBay sales left us £56 in the black – hooray!

I did have a plan B bubbling away in the background in case we fell short of the magic number as well. If I’d exhausted all other options, I’d have used a company likeZippa – They offer short term loans and give you very clear information on what you’ll repay.

I’m happy to report our boiler was finally working a week after it conked out, and we paid all of our bills on time. Peter and Paul were both happy by 1st Feb, and I was happy once I could once again walk barefoot in the kitchen! Have you ever had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul?